MOHNTON, Pa. - With all the records broken during the weekend in the Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car class at Maple
Grove Raceway, the Mickey Thompson DRO AA/FC Challenge ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

John Smith and the crew of the Jungle Jim celebrate in Victory
Lane.

John Smith and the Jungle Jim Vega won the championship late Saturday night as part of the Geezers
Reunion at The Grove and the Uni-Select Cavalcade of Funny Cars.

He didn't have to make a pass in the final as his opponent, Shawn Bowen, broke his car after
beating Marc White in the semifinals.

Bowen and his '77 Firebird won the race, but then broke down in the shutdown lane, causing a
43-minute cleanup. Replacement parts were available, but the crew couldn't make the repairs in the
90-minute window.

Maple Grove's speed record was reset twice in the first round of eliminations. White went 248.98
mph at 5.741 seconds - also a track record - in a win over Mike Halstead. White's 5.741, which
stood at the end of the evening, bettered a mark of 5.775 set by Mike Lewis in Friday's qualifying.

Bowen took the speed record away in his pass against Peter Gallen. Bowen went 251.49 at 5.754
seconds to grab the mark.

On the other side of the bracket, "Crazy Jake" Crimmins upset top-seeded Lewis in the first round
as he made a run of 5.971 at 232.35 as Lewis fell behind and couldn't quite catch up at the end.
Meanwhile, Smith ran against his brother, Mike, and won the sibling battle by going 5.829 at
246.21.

In the semifinals, Bowen got the jump on White at the start and got to the finish first as both
cars struggled. Turns out, the run was too much for Bowen's Firebird. On the other hand, Smith had
an easy road when Crimmins fouled at the start.

The Alcohol Funny Cars used a Chicago-style format in which the two quickest in the first round of
time shots faced each other in the second for the championship. Rocky Pirrone in the Screamin'
Eagle Firebird had a victory cruise when George Reidnauer in the Excalibur Corvette broke at the
starting line.

To get to the final, Pirrone went 6.643 seconds at 210.21, while Reidnauer went 6.780 at 203.00.